Parents will find out on Monday, April 16 which primary school their child will be attending in September 2018.

Hopefully you’ll be happy with your offer, but if not, you may be considering an appeal.

Here’s our guide to the process:

I applied to the wrong schools or have changed my mind - can I alter my application?

Up to the deadline, if you’ve submitted your application online, you should be able to alter your preferences.

After the deadline, it is still possible to change your mind, but you’d have to submit a new form, which would be treated as late, and then you would be allocated a place after the applicants who submitted their forms online.

How likely am I to miss out on my first choice school for my child?

The good news is that the vast majority of families see their child accepted to their preferred school.

According to Department for Education stats for 2016, 88.4% of parents got an offer from the school at the top of their list and 96.3% of parents received an offer from one of their top three schools.

A child in school (Image: Western Mail Archive)

Even though the number of applicants to primary schools is increasing, so is the percentage of parents who are happy with their lot on national offers day.

So, in short, the odds of you missing out are pretty slim - but you should still be prepared for disappointment.

I’m not happy with the offer I’ve had - can I appeal?

Yes, there is an appeal process - although Elizabeth Coatman from The Good Schools Guide says the odds of getting a decision overturned are “incredibly slim”.

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If you want to challenge a placement decision, there will be details of how to go about it on the offer letter you’ve been sent.

You’ll need to lodge a separate appeal for each school if you want to challenge more than one decision.

When do I have to appeal by?

Councils all have different deadlines for appeals to be received, so check your local authority’s website - but generally appeal forms will need to be in by around May.

I’ve got an older child who goes to the school we’ve been rejected from - is that enough to swing an appeal in my favour?

No - the school your other children go to or went to are not considered legitimate grounds for appeal.

What else is ruled out of the appeals process?

Bad Ofsted reports, over-sized classes and the distance of the school from your home are all insufficient grounds for appeal.

So what can I base an appeal on?

Just not wanting your child to go to the school isn’t enough, you’ll need to show there was something wrong with the decision, or a special reason why it would be unreasonable to send your child to the school you’ve been allocated.

Primary school children (Image: South Wales Echo)

Your appeal should be successful if:

• the admission arrangements haven’t been properly followed

• the admission criteria aren’t legal according to the school admissions appeal code

• the decision to refuse your child a place wasn’t reasonable.

OK, I still want to appeal ...

You still need to accept the place you’ve been offered even if you’re not happy.

Making sure your child has a place in a school is more important than the appeal. If you win your appeal, your child won’t have to go to the school you were first offered, even if you’ve accepted the place.

Also, there’s no harm in getting onto the waiting lists for other schools you would prefer, even if they weren’t on your initial application.

Maybe take the time to look at the Ofsted reports of the school you’ve been offered and aren’t happy with.

Bad reputations stick around for a long time and it might be that big improvements have been made in the last few years.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, don’t let your child know you’re disappointed with the offer - they might end up having to go to the school and shouldn’t be made to worry about it.